Okay I'am seriously thinking about taking a lil sis or KEY sis this year, about how much do you spend on a lil sis? like an avredge and in your guy's opinion WHAT should I buy for them like a list? Because I want to buy ebay it's cheaper than the greek box, but I want to know what I should get?

I bought my littles tons of stuff. But I spoiled them a lot. I got a lot of stuff from the Greek Store on campus, (well, near campus) but I also did a lot of little crafty things - like personalized candy jars (jars from Michael's Arts and Crafts, decorated with paint pens, filled with blue candies).

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The owl, the key, the fleur de lis... rah rah for KKG!

First, hopefully your chapter has some form of a spending limit and even a small budget for buiying some standard things because buying 'lil gifts should definately not be about who spends the most $$$. For example, my chapter set aside a budget to buy all new members 'house letters' for initiation, and we had $20 limit on other gifts. I think this is important otherwise spending can get seriously out of control. Sorry for the aside... I'll step off my soapbox now!

If you want to go the cheap-but-sentamental route, one of the neatest key-sis gifts I have seen was a scrapbook partially filled.. the idea being you buy one of those scrapbooks where you can add extra pages to them, and then you start the scrapbook with pictures from their new-member period - bid day pictures, sleepover pictures, just random hanging out pictures, and so on. Then you leave pages for them to fill over the years.

I personally think that the best gifts you can give are handmade ones. I'd suggest taking a trip to Michael's or JoAnn's (or whatever local craft store) and just look at all the items they have. I decorated my Key Sis a picture frames, candle holders, candy jars, coffee mugs, etc.

I also bought her several inexpensive items with letters on it. New members are always so excited about Kappa and want to show it off. Key chains, car stickers, lavaliers and other jewelry, and t-shirts are all really good ideas. In our chapter, many actives give their key sisters their old shirts from formals, socials, etc so that the new members will have more Kappa shirts to wear.

Technically, gifts for the New Members (especially Bid Day and Initiation gifts) should all come out of the New Member Educator budget so that no active member should have to spend her personal money.

That doesn't mean you can't buy your Key Sis fun Kappa items. The Key Source (www.buykappa.com) has some super cute things and you can sometimes find good deals on eBay. Handmade gifts are especially nice and I've found some fun, kitschy things with keys, owls or fleur-de-lis at Goodwill, garage sales and antique stores.

__________________It's gonna be a hootenanny.
Or maybe a jamboree.
Or possibly even a shindig or lollapalooza.
Perhaps it'll be a hootshinpaloozaree. I don't know.

Something our chapter (Eta Alpha) does for new members is give them a bucket with a fleur-de-lis painted on the side. Then we fill it with little things - stationary, kappa cups, a car sticker, key chain, etc. It's great to hold stuff later on too. I keep craft supplies in it, but it's a bucket. You can put anything in it.

We also have a bid day cd that we make for each new member class. It has lots of kappa-esque songs on it. (Think: I never saw blue like that before by shawn colvin, etc). It's awesome. It's really easy to put together.

Good luck and have fun!

Bonding idea - have a crafts party with other sisters who are going to take key sisters. You get to share ideas (and paint pens ) and have fun wth your sisters!

OMG thank you guys SO much for your replies! At my chapter we have to pay for pretty much everything for the PNM's. were very behind times I believe with the new going ons of nationals (I hate to say it but it's kinda true ) but I think some girl told me it cost her 600 dollars to take a key sis!! I was dumb founded!! I think she might me wrong, or I hope she is!

I'm glad the suggestions here have helped. ISUKappa makes an excellent point that you might want to address with your chapter's New Member Chairman.

In the future, your chapter should budget to spend *chapter funds* on the New Member gifts. Why?
1) Each new member receives the same gifts, eliminating the problem of some new members getting "nicer" or "more" gifts than others.
(2) (This is the big one)...Kappa has a "no-assessment" policy. This means that once a member has paid her chapter dues, she is not REQUIRED to spend any additional money for chapter expenses. When a chapter requires (or even strongly recommends) that a member pay out of pocket for new member gifts, that's assessing. And we don't assess in Kappa.

No worries...this is an area that lots of chapters can stand to improve in. But I would strongly recommend that you bend your Treasurer and NM Chair's ear about changing the process next year! That way, everything is kosher, and no one is stressed about spending money on NM gifts.

Ladies, you are amazing!--one question though--how much do you guys pay in dues??? We are usually around 475? Is yours a lot more?? or are we not splitting it up right?? we only have about 80 girls in our chapter. Do you guys have a budget sheet? is there anyways i can get all these rules or assesments were not suppose to pay for? Do you guys have to buy your date party shirts? or kappa classic shirts? or kappa splash etc. shirts??? Omg as much info as possible I had NONONONO Idea

Dues will vary by chapter. The total house/chapter bill you pay may include more than dues (depending on if you have a chapter house, etc...) Dues is just the money that goes back into the chapter for the chapter operating budget (at least this is my understanding, Kristin, feel free to correct me). The chapter budget should be presented each year by the chapter treasurer and voted on by the chapter. If you ever have questions about where your money goes or what you have in your budget if you're an officer, feel free to ask the treasurer or finance adviser.

Things such as bid day/party pictures, social t-shirts, philanthropy t-shirts, party favors etc... are all considered optional and are the responsibility of each individual chapter member. Those you will have to pay for on your own and if you ever think you won't be able to pay, don't sign up for it. You would not believe how many extra pictures, t-shirts and party favors are left over because people sign up and then once they arrive, decide they can't pay for it.

__________________It's gonna be a hootenanny.
Or maybe a jamboree.
Or possibly even a shindig or lollapalooza.
Perhaps it'll be a hootshinpaloozaree. I don't know.

My recommendation if you are trying to squeeze things like New Member welcome gifts into the budget is to prioritize dues a little like ISUKappa said.

For example, most event t-shirts end up costing more than $5 per shirt. So if you make 5-6 shirts a year each member is paying something like $30-$40 of their dues to t-shirts alone. I know on some campuses chapters make shirts for everything but maybe is is time to re-evaluate? Can you scale that back to 2-3 shirts a year? One idea is to actually buy NICER shirts and wear them for multiple events.

If your chapter has an Alumnae advisor for the treasurer, call them up! They can certainly help you find ways to prioritize and keep dues reasonable. And if you don't have alumnae advisors - contact national headquarters. I know, no one wants headquarters to tell them what to do. But if you do need help - ask! You should be able to get a special traveling consultant (or your consultant may stay around a little longer) to sit down with your officers and help them out. Your chapter can also get a "virtual" advisor (email/phone) - this is something that works well if your college is not near a major city with a lot of alumnae. Kappa also has free leadership trainers they will send to help out to just conduct general leadership training classes - might as well make that per-capita fee you pay headquarters work for you!

By the way, if you need more information and bylaws and such, you can find it all at the Kappa website: www.kappakappagamma.org . Your login name is on the address label of your last issue of The Key, and there should be instructions there too. Go to the collegiate sections and they have forms and resources galore!